Mystery Book Review: Beneath a Buried House by Bob Avey

Mysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, is publishing a new review of Beneath a Buried House by Bob Avey. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.

Beneath a Buried House by Bob Avey
A Kenny Elliot Mystery

Deadly Niche Press (Trade Paperback)
ISBN-10: 0-937660-81-7 (0937660817)
ISBN-13: 978-0-937660-81-2 (9780937660812)
Publication Date: June 2008
List Price: $17.95

Synopsis (from the publisher): Things aren't always what they seem. Tulsa Police Detective, Kenny Elliot's quest to uncover the truth behind the death of a transient makes him a target - from whom or what he isn't sure. When he brushes the dirt from the surface of an apparent John Doe overdose case, he finds a labyrinth of misdirection and deception beneath, and a trail, which leads him to an encounter with an aberration in human nature, the likes of which he's not prepared to deal with.

Drawing on his strength of character, and sense of right and wrong, he wrestles with deep personal feelings to solve the case. 

Review: Tulsa police detective Kenny Elliot finds himself inexorably drawn into strange circumstances surrounding the death of a man from an apparent drug overdose, alone in a nearly vacant apartment, in Beneath a Buried House, the second mystery in this series by Bob Avey.

Thought by his peers to be an accidental death or potentially a suicide, Kenny believes the unidentified man was murdered. When a prostitute seen with the man on the night of his death is later killed, Kenny is sure the cases are related though there is no physical evidence to connect them. It isn't until he ties the disappearance of the prime suspect in the murder to the dead man that Kenny realizes the solution to his case may ultimately involve a family that went missing years ago.

Beneath a Buried House is one of those mysteries that capture the reader's imagination from the very first chapter. Relationships between many of the characters are established early but are incomplete leading to a sense of foreboding: something is bound to happen but it isn't clear what that may be or when or to whom it may happen. The third person narrative is largely written in a direct, somewhat detached manner that is completely in character with Kenny himself. Even his relationship, really infatuation, with a mysterious woman has a circumspect aspect to it. Towards the end the plot becomes rather predictable, there are a few plot points aren't cleanly wrapped up, and what is undoubtedly intended to be a surprise ending isn't, but overall these are minor criticisms for what is otherwise an enjoyable crime novel.

Special thanks to Bob Avey for providing a copy of Beneath a Buried House for this review.

Review Copyright © 2008 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved.

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